With sidebar commentaries by
Chris Sommovigo of The Signals Collection and Mark
Doehmann of Continuum

[All
photographs, image editing, and effects by Robinson]

It's been long, too
long, since my last jottings here. Most of the past
year has been preoccupied with professional and
personal concerns far from the roistering of fine
audio, with toils, temptations, and trials on every
hand… my silence has not been golden. It's not that
I've been avoiding audio and video; far from it.
I've been listening and watching in many settings
and formats… east coast (where I was) and west coast
(where I've returned, thankfully)… and have a
substantial handful of projects that I'm working on
right now. But exhaustion and other professional
projects had me in a completely different track.

Enough. Back to fine
audio/video; there are several key projects overdue
in my queue, and I need to break that logjam. Thanks
to my audio friends who have been patient, waiting
for these notes to be published.

Back to
Turntables: Enter the Continuum Criterion

It's been a while
since I evaluated a turntable. As always, turntable
logistics are a bear; probably 40% of the projects
that I've tried to put together over the years have
piled up on the rocks of product availability,
backlogs, custom building, schedule coordination,
overseas shipping costs, distributor gnarliness, and
so on. Frustrating stuff, believe me. And that's
particularly true since only LPs and SACDs (plus the
occasional open reel tape that I can find) really
float my audio boat. (I do have Blu Ray
high-resolution audio under evaluation right now,
however; we'll see if I amend that statement in the
near future.) I have a few thousand LPs around, with
some really terrific music… I really love great
vinyl. And it's sad to find as many obstacles as I
do in the way of regular 'table evaluations. This
means that nowadays I only mess with turntable
reviews when I'm really sure that the parts
and pieces can come together.

Which, I am glad to
say, happened in the Spring and Summer of 2008 with
the Continuum Criterion.

How did that happen?
Easy. I cheated.

It helps to know the
US distributor for a turntable line, and it turns
out that Continuum's USA distributor is an old and
good friend of mine, Chris Sommovigo, of The Signal
Collection. Chris has been a huge fan of licorice
pizzas for beaucoup years, is an incurable
vinylholic, and thus is a congenial kind of guy.
Simpatico! After a CES set with the Continuum
Caliburn, I had put the Continnum line down as one
to keep an ear on… clearly these folks were on to
some good things in their design work. When I
reached a good time in my review schedule to talk
about it, I put the question to Chris: what about a
Continuum review?

As it turned out, the
Caliburn wasn't available (is it ever?), but the
tandem of the Criterion turntable and the Copperhead tonearm could be sent to me. So far, so good. The
next question was which MC was recommended for the
Copperhead. This is a tricky thing, newbies; as I've
noted in past turntable reviews, you should not
just sling a turntable/tonearm/MC together
willy-nilly. (Nor, for that matter, should your
isolation platform and cabling be ignored, but
that's dangerously close to a truism… it applies to
everything in fine audio/video.) Since Chris had
gotten some good results from the Air Tight PC-1,
and had one in inventory, it would come along for
the ride. He also had a Finite Elemente Pagode
Master Reference equipment rack on hand that would
provide a platform for the Criterion during the
review. PFO would supply the phono amp (the
impeccable Lamm LP2), cabling (JENA Labs ONE and
Silent Source), and the power enhancement (Walker
Audio's Velocitor). And the LPs! Lots of those.

I have to say that
Chris was tremendously helpful throughout. He and
Rich O'Neill, his setup specialist would fly in for
the deployment, so all was Jake. Bye-bye to painful
logistical problems, thanks to Continuum, Sommovigo
& Company.

What follows is a
photo essay of the setup and dial-in, with my
evaluative comments afterwards.

The Setup

Rich O'Neill
demonstrates impeccable technique (and gaze) while "de-boxing" the Finite Elemente equipment rack. Rich
really knows his analog(ue) stuff, and impressed us
with his skill and toolset during setup. Good guy,
too!

More to the
point: Chris Sommovigo and Rich O'Neill opening the
Christmas presents from Continuum. Very impressive
packaging; built like a tank, the way that all
Monkey Coffins should be. (No, I am not kidding;
substandard packaging/crating bothers me a lot. It
should concern you too.)

Chris and Rich
arrived at the end of April, 2008, to deliver the
goods and begin the process of unboxing and
assembling the equipment. Both gents are great
fellows, audio lovers, know their stuff, and went
right to work. In short time, our garage here in
River City started to fill up with crate guts,
boxes, gizzards, and packing materials.

Chris triumphantly
displays the vacuum pump/power supply of the
Continuum Criterion. Beefy stuff! I'd give him about
8.0 out of 10 on his muscle-man stance. When will
the Olympics add Power Supply Clean and Jerk to
their events?

Wowzers. Here's
the main Control Unit for the Criterion, resting in
place on a shelf in the Finite Elemente. Speeds of
33.3, 45 and even 78—impressive. The VAC button
initiates the vacuum hold-down system; the + button
increases turntable rotation, while the—dials it
down. The far right button is power on/off.

In which our audio
heroes mount the pods on the Criterion chassis. It
may look simple and fairly compact, but
there's much more to this turntable than meets the
eye.

With the Continuum
Criterion chassis in place on the Finite Elemente
rack, the next step is to get the platter and plinth
into place. Chris examines The Cartridge Man Digital
Leveling Gauge in preparation for its use.

With the drive
under-assembly in place, Chris does an initial check
of the level, and begins the adjustment of the
Criterion's pods before installing the drive belt
system.

The pods of the
Criterion are substantial, by the way. According to
Chris Sommovigo, [these are actually identical to
each other—locations are symmetrical, but were
chosen by FEA analysis for best locale, and are
precisely located according to
supercomputer-calculated optimums.

According to
Continuum, this counter-intuitive configuration was
calculated by an Australian supercomputer as the one
that would provide maximum resonance control, and
thus optimum neutrality for LP playback.

After a bit of
noodging and pod adjustment, the Criterion comes
nicely into level.

Spot on! The
Criterion is now ready for the next step…

…the Copperhead
tonearm. Chris stands ready to launch, after he and
Rich complete the preparations.

Rich checks the
platter's vacuum hold-down and auto-slider record
clamp.

With the carbon
fiber plinth and the platter in place, next comes
the adjustment of the Copperhead tonearm mount and
the dialing in of the Air Tight PC-1 MC cartridge
(which is obviously not yet mounted). That's "The
Ultimate Analogue Test LP" on the platter; a good
test LP is an essential part of turntable setup.

Rich begins work
on adjusting the initial proper level of the
Copperhead.

Here's a rare
sight: the Copperhead tonearm on its side, exposing
the tonearm mount.

Next Rich and
Chris check the tracking force. It needs to be 2.0
grams; you can see that they're close in this
watercolor image.

Here's a side view
of the unique profile offered by the Copperhead.
Composed of resin, hollow throughout most of its
cross-section, the Copperhead tonearm is unlike most
that you'll see. It's now ready for proper fine
tuning of its Vertical Tracking Angle (VTA).

The assembled
Criterion/Copperhead in fresco, with the Air Tight
PC-1 in place; now a Telarc OMNIDISC LP is used to
help dial-in the tonearm's anti-skating and get the
Air Tight PC-1 tweaked for top performance.

Here's a
watercolor of the superb Lamm LP2 phono amp in place
next door on the Critical Mass Systems Grandmaster
Black rack and isolation platform system.

Rich uses a Fluke
Digital Multi-Meter (DMM) to dial in the test tones
precisely. He's sneaking up on the 1kHz tone in this
photograph; some tweaking is still necessary.

Having hit the
range with the Criterion/Copperhead/PC-1, Chris and
Rich work on packing up the loose ends. In the
background are a pair of the mbl 9008 amps in
monoblock mode, as well as the exceptional mbl 101
Radialstrahler omni-directional speakers. Superb!

Chris Sommovigo
al fresco, immediately after the Criterion has
been setup…mission accomplished. It's a very good
thing to love what you do….

Rich O'Neil,
likewise in fresco, discussing the merits of the
Criterion. Throughout this project, Rich proved to
be extremely knowledgeable, and was able to dial-in
the tandem of the Copperhead and the Air Tight PC-1
with impressive efficiency. Like Chris, he's also a
lot of fun to listen to great LPs with.

The Air Tight PC-1
properly configured, and in action… a thing of
beauty!

During a second
listening session a couple of months later, Rich
O'Neil got a chance to meet with Michael and
Jennifer Crock of JENA Labs. This gave us an
opportunity to hear the striking difference that the
JENA Labs Model ONE power cable makes to the
Continuum Criterion system. The improvement was
not subtle.

Michael Crock
zooms in on the Criterion in action. In the
background, the Lamm LP2 phono amp rests on the new
rack that it had been transferred to by this time in
the evaluation, the Critical Mass Systems PXK. To
say that this was a rack upgrade over the CMS
Grandmaster Black would be a real understatement….

Rich and Jennifer
yakking it up over the finer points of analogics and
fine audio reproduction. Sorry, no transcript
available!

The Rest of the
Playback System

The Continuum
Criterion/Copperhead and Air Tight PC-1 on the
Finite Elemente rack were in rare and exceptionally
good company during this evaluation. The rest of the
circuit maximus consisted of a set from mbl,
whose synergy, beauty, and transforming sonic
quality is such that I will be writing on them in a
parallel essay: the 6010 D preamp, a pair of 9008
monoblock amplifiers, and the 101 Radialstrahler
omnidirectional speakers. In addition to the
Criterion turntable, my other reference source was
the Playback Designs MPS-5 SACD/CD player. (See my
review of the MPS-5 in PFO Issue 39, at
http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue39/playbackdesigns_mps5.htm.)
Power cabling was provided mainly by Silent Source,
with a JENA Labs Model ONE on the MPS-5 (an
enhancement to the performance of the MPS-5 that I
consider to be sine qua non.) The Walker
Audio Velocitor provided line enhancement on the
source end; the dual AC's per monoblock of the mbl
9008's were plugged directly into the wall, each
pair of Silent Source AC cables having its own
dual-duplex 20 amp dedicated outlet. Other isolation
shelving was provided by Vibraplane/Black Diamond
Racing/Michael Green (6010 D preamp), Walker Audio's
Prologue amplifier racks (9008 monoblocks), and
Critical Mass Systems' Grandmaster Black rack and
shelf system (Lamm LP2 phono amp, and the EMM Labs
CDSD SE transport and DCC2 SE preamp). I should note
that the Grandmaster Black was replaced later in the
review with the next step up in the Critical Mass
Systems line, the PXK, definitely improving the
sound of both LP and SACD playback.

The mbl 9008s on
their Walker Audio Prologue Reference amp stands,
with the mbl 101's in place, cabled with double runs
of JENA Labs Pathfinder/Symphony. In the background
is the Walker Audio Proscenium Black Diamond
turntable system, with Jud Barber's LPA-150, on a
Prologue Reference rack. You can just make out the
Criterion power supply at the left edge of the
photograph.

The Criterion on
the top shelf of the Finite Elemente Pagode Master
Reference Rack; the next level down is the Criterion
Master Control Center. On the floor rests the vacuum
pump/power supply. The main power cabling was via
JENA Labs. The Critical Mass Systems Grandmaster
Black Rack with the EMM Labs components is just
visible to the left of this image.

Lamm's very fine
LP2 Phono Amp rests on the top shelf of the Critical
Mass Systems PXK rack system, which replaced the CMS
Grandmaster Black that the evaluation started with.
The CMS Grandmaster Black is very fine, but the CMS
PXK is discernibly better. The PXK definitely
improved the sound of the LP2, which benefitted my
ability to critique the Criterion/Copperhead/PC-1.
The Lamm LP2 proved itself to be a very well-matched
and revealing component in the audio chain between
the Criterion/Copperhead/Air Tight PC-1 and the mbl
6010 D preamplifier.

The Lamm LP2 took
the output of the Criterion and talked downstream to
the the mbl 6010 D reference preamplifier in its
place on the Vibraplane: its performance was
absolutely above reproach…and it's yowzah
gorgeous, too! I really was spoiled, you know… and no
one complained of sonic results, either.

Deep Technology

In past years I've
talked about the beastly challenge that the
seemingly simple task of pulling signals out of
vinyl grooves accurately poses to audio engineers
and designers. I've gotten some excellent
opportunities to hear several fine turntables in the
intimately-known precincts of my own listening room,
and have shared my thoughts with PFO readers
over the years. If you're new to turntables, or if
your knowledge/experience is limited, you might want
to take a look at some of what I've written on the
subject. For what it's worth, you'll find my past
commentary and notes about the mysteries of
turntables at the following links:

All of the above is in
addition to many years (twenty now!) with my
trusty-rusty Linn LP-12/Ekos/Arkiv/Cirkus/Trampolin/Lingo
system, a Linto (sold quite a while ago) and my EAR
324. Beyond that, I've gotten to hear tons of
turntables at various shows over the past fifteen
years…more than I'd care to think about, actually.
Throughout all of this, I've gotten a chance to see
and hear a number of approaches to the Sisyphean
task of LP audio reproduction: the optimum playback of
whatever is in those devilish, seductive vinyl
grooves.

It really does look
so easy.

And it really is
anything but.

As Tim de Paravicini
once told me regarding master tape playback at CES
2003, really quite passionately: "David, the
problem is not in recording music. We
can do that. You wouldn't believe how good even
tapes from 1950 are. That isn't the challenge. The
problem is in the playback!"

Tim de Paravicini
at CES 2003, during our conversation about the
challenge of playback in open reel tape and
turntable systems.

Speaking of master
audio engineers, here's that Guru of the Grooves,
Stan "The Man!" Ricker at VSAC 2001… affectionate
portrait by yours truly. Stan has forgotten more
about LP mastering and playback than most folks ever
knew.

But just try
playing back what's in those grooves. Our licorice
pizzas mock us, scoffing at (most of) our efforts to
coax their deeper secrets out into our listening
rooms. We scowl and pace restlessly, sensing that
our LPs are holding out on us—and, most of the
time, they are, the faithless wenches! Only our very
best efforts show us what can still be, sometimes
decades after their pressing, with these vinyl
anachronisms that refuse to dry up and die…except
with those who don't know better, whose idea of
quality is fully encompassed by their iPod or MP3
player and a pair of ear buds.

But every now and
then, you hear a turntable system that breaks out of
the pack, and reminds you of what can be done. There
are only a relative few of these… the top-rank, 800
pound gorillas that set the standard. Among these,
in my experience, is the Continuum Criterion, with
its Copperhead tonearm.

The Criterion is not
like any other turntable that I've had in my
listening room. In type, it is an exceptionally
sophisticated uni-pivot, nested platter, inverted
bearing, vacuum hold-down, computer-controlled
belt-driven system. The Continuum Castelli stand
provides a carefully matched platform for the best
foundation, finishing the system, though this was
not available during this first review in 2008. (I
have been promised a return visit of the Criterion
in the late summer of 2009, this time with the
Castelli; this will give me the opportunity to
assess the optimal package.) Instead, during this
first review we used a Finite Elemente Pagode Master
Reference Rack, a maple and aluminum structure. (For
more on this rack, see
http://www.finite-elemente.de/en/racks/pagode_master_reference#.)

The Criterion
drive system and platter: overcoming cogging and
hysteresis through deep technology…

One set of technical
challenges that the Criterion had to overcome were
the twin problems of cogging and hysteresis in the
platter drive. Chris observed that "cogging is
actually the feeling of stops or detents as the
motor turns and the permanent magnets encounter the
stators—you can feel this by hand by simply
turning the motor drive wheel by hand and feeling
the detents." Cogging, plus hysteresis…that is, the
tendency of a drive belt to pull-coast-pull-coast as
drive torque is applied… both contribute to the
harming of linearity in vinyl playback. In a
discussion with Chris, he noted:

"…the elasticity in
a belt that causes this kind of action…is a
matter of mechanical hysteresis. As the belt is
stretched to the point of being able to move the
platter, the platter moves allowing the belt to
relax, then the motor pulls ahead and
re-stretches the belt until it can once again
move the platter. This is fairly typical of all
belt-drive systems, and aside from the advanced
computational power of the Criterion helping to
mitigate the effects of this, it always helps to
have pure unadulterated inertia on your side.
Very heavy platters are objects in motion that
really do try to stay in motion! Big, heavy
platters are critical in just about every kind
of record playback system because they impart a
nice flywheel effect and make it simpler for the
system to maintain speed. Light platters with
systems that use the lightweight nature to
permit the correction circuitry to alter the
spin of the platter hundreds of thousands of
times a second are not ideal and can possibly
introduce logic-induced cogging effects because
of the desire to correct speed too often and
instantaneously. These cogging impulses cannot
help but be transferred to the platter and,
ultimately, to the record and stylus."

The Criterion has a
very advanced speed monitoring capability, with
precisely placed indicators in the underside of the
platter being continually fine-tuned by the Control
Unit for accurate speed. Chris told me more about
this. "There is an optical system that is used, and
it is internal to the motor—which is extremely
advanced in this regard, being able to translate not
only its own speed consistency, but the effect of
any potential hysteresis being returned to it by the
belt and platter."
I have seen this sort of thing done in other
designs, but never to this level of accomplishment.
According to Continuum, only the Caliburn/Cobra has
a higher level of execution when it comes to their
vision for LP playback.

The Criterion's
profile, then, constitutes a unique combination of
design philosophy, materials science, push-the-edge
supercomputer calculation, and
listen-to-it-carefully evaluation. The tandem of the
Criterion/Copperhead was derived from its big
brother, the Continuum Caliburn/Cobra, of
stratospheric reputation and price. Continuum made
the decision to see how many of the virtues of the
Caliburn/Cobra could be captured at a lower price
point (USD $59,995 for the Criterion turntable, USD
$6995 for the Copperhead tonearm, and USD $16,995
for the Castelli stand, totaling USD $83,985), as
opposed to the current sticker price of USD $150,000
for the Caliburn system. This is not an unknown
process in fine audio; it's pretty common to see a
designer or design team start with a
reference-grade, cost-no-object product as their
proof of concept—it's actually much easier to get
the job done without tight budget constraints—and
then take those lessons with them as they seek to
hit lower price points in their product line.

According to
Continuum, the Criterion/Copperhead group was given
the task of re-thinking the lessons of the
Caliburn/Cobra completely. Every aspect was to be
considered as they sought to hit their price goal.
Having divided the task into a set of sub-systems,
they worked on getting most of the results of the
reference exemplar with less exotic and expensive
materials, in the most compact framework possible.
For example, the platter sub-sys ended up being
fabricated from military specification magnesium, to
the tune of 30 kilograms (66 pounds). The chassis is
likewise composed of a magnesium alloy, custom
matched to the re-designed bearing assembly, and
heavily dampened to knock down any nasty sonic
knuckleheadedness. A highly sophisticated
DSP-controlled optical monitoring system is used to
keep the turntable within speed parameters, and to
assure the smoothest possible action of the motor
drive belt. Speeds of 33.3, 45 and 78 RPM are all
supported, with broad leeway for pitch variation.
(For more information on the Continuum/Copperhead
system, see the sidebar by Chris Sommovigo,
elsewhere in this issue.)

The Criterion
features a vacuum system with what Continuum terms
"Stealth Mode Operation." This provides
authoritative and continuous LP hold down, while
still operating so smoothly and quietly that the
listener can house it in the same room—and even on
the same rack system, at need—as the Criterion
itself. I can vouch for the quietness of the system
personally; I sat within a few feet of the system
for four months with no annoying distractions
whatsoever. There is a small record suction cup that
acts as a guardian of the hold down and provides the
seal at the spindle hole for the vacuum, so that it
doesn't lose pressure. It's quite light and
diminutive, but use demonstrated that it does superb
work in accomplishing that task. (See photograph
below.)

Looking down on
the Criterion/Copperhead, with the hold-down clamp
in place; clearly the Criterion hold-down clamp does
not rely on mass or a locking latch to accomplish
its task.

Once set up,
operating the Criterion was very straightforward.
The Power Unit is a separate box that we sat on the
floor. The Control Unit went on the second shelf
down, with the Criterion up high. You hit the power
button the first time up; I just left it on after
that. Take your properly ritualized album… you do
ritualize, don't you? ...put it on the platter, and
drop the clamp into place. You don't have to clamp
anything, or press it down; just let it float down
to the label. Then you press the "VAC" button on the
Control Unit to initialize the vacuum hold-down.
This is a very quiet process; you'll see the lip at
the edge of the platter flatten as the LP is drawn
down into place, and the clamp settles slightly. It
only takes a few seconds. Finally, you hit the speed
button (33.3, 45 or 78; note that the Criterion does
have "+" and "-" buttons for fine-tuning the pitch
of a given LP) and cue up the LP. When you're
finished, you hoist the Copperhead, cut the drive
and then the vacuum on the Control Unit, and you're
ready to snag the old LP and feed a new one.

Very quick; very
clean. Once set up, I adjudged the Criterion to be
extremely quiet…vacuum and all… and easy to operate. VTA adjustment does require some practice due to its
location on the Copperhead, but that's nothing new: getting the body language down on VTA requires
practice on any tonearm that allows it. Audiophiles
who are averse to operational complexity should find
little here to disappoint them.

So everything was
ready for listening.

The Sound

Before I share my
observations on the Criterion/Copperhead/PC-1 in the
LP2/mbl system, here's a brief review about the
things that I believe to be right, true, and
beautiful in fine audio reproduction. I'll do this
at the risk of some redundancy, since long-time
readers of PFO should be familiar with my
thoughts on the subject. Since 1998 I have been
writing about what I am convinced is the fundamental
standard in audio as an art form: microphone
feeds and master tapes. In my opinion, the
only proper benchmark for the audio arts is either
the mic feed, if a live and direct recording, or the
master tape if production work was required to
attain the artistic vision of the composer/performer
(The Beatles' Sergeant Peppers being a
notable example). The quality of these sources
provides us with the ultimate Holy Grail for our
audio quest. In my experience, anything less than
this standard…anything which subtracts from what
exists in the studio, booth, or recording venue…is a
descent from the heights of audio possibilities that
we ought to be seeking. We cannot possibly know
what could be in our listening rooms if we supply
them with source recordings that are only distant
approximations of mic feeds and master tapes.

Some sources and
formats are inherently better than others in our
search for the microphone and the master tape. At
the top of the heap in my experience: pure DSD
recordings (with their related well-mastered SACDs);
analog(ue) open reel, 15ips or better, quarter inch
half track or better, as Dan Schmalle and the gang
over at The Tape Project are demonstrating quite
convincingly at shows (haven't heard this in my
listening room yet); and well-mastered LPs from
either superior analog(ue) or DSD sources played
back on the very first rank of turntables, tonearms
and MCs on the planet.

Other candidates for
knights delivering our Holy Grail include DXD at
352.8kHz/24-bit, which has shown itself to be
promising, at least in its SACD incarnation on our
reference Playback Designs MPS-5. Some of these
higher resolution PCM formats delivered on Blu Ray
show promise as well, though we're awaiting the
arrival of Marantz's UD9004 reference-grade Blu Ray
Universal Player before saying anything more
definite. (Recordings like Neil Young's Archives,
Vol. 1 with its stereo only 192kHz/24-bit
delivery, will provide us with an excellent
opportunity to listen to the Marantz Blu Ray unit.
Note that this recording was reviewed very favorably
in PFO Issue 44 by Greg Maltz; see
http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue44/young.htm
for more. The Scandinavian label 2L is doing some
very promising work with two-fer recordings recorded
increasingly in DXD, and released in both SACD and
Blu Ray formats… an outstanding idea at this time.)
Reference Recordings' HRx standard at
176.4kHz/24-bit is an open question; I'll be
evaluating this alternative in the fall of 2009;
ditto the 192kHz/24-bit .WAV files from Chesky
Records, both to be auditioned courtesy of PS
Audio's 192kHz/24-bit-capable PerfectWave transport
and DAC.

Note that I do not
say that lesser audio forms or standards may not
have a certain charm or utility of their own. For
example, MP3s are portable, cheap, and convenient.
Not good; just portable, cheap, and convenient. Red
Book CDs are a standard, supported by just about
anything, make good background music (and coasters),
and may be the only format that a given
recording/artist can be found on. Again, not
great…though better than MP3s, amazingly. Apple and
Microsoft both have formats that support
uncompressed, lossless compression, and lossy
compression. To my ear, each of these is a step
downward, moving from left to right in the sentence
above. DVD-A at either 88.2kHz/20- or 24-bit, or
96kHz/24-bit is noticeably superior to any of the
lower PCM resolutions… check out the high-resolution
downloads at HDTracks (http://www.hdtracks.com)
if you disagree…but lesser than the formats listed
in the paragraph above. And none of the formats in
this paragraph can lay any possible claim to
delivering mic feeds/master tapes to us, not even
what is now medium-strength PCM (88.2kHz or 96kHz).

"Better" is not "best";
"pretty close" is not "the thing itself."

And when it comes to
mic feeds and master tapes, it's "the thing itself"
that we are…or should be…looking for.

Enough said; back to
the Criterion.

I spent some four months
with the Criterion and its associated playback
chain, listening to both 33.3 and 45 RPM LPs on a
regular basis. My tastes in music are pretty
eclectic, and I indulged them throughout this
review. Among the titles I used:

Led Zeppelin, Led
Zeppelin II, Led Zeppelin III, Classic
Records and Japanese pressings

Led Zeppelin,
Physical Graffiti, Japanese pressing

Otis Redding, The
Dock of the Bay, Sundazed

Nick Drake, Pink
Moon, Japanese pressing

Nick Drake, Bryter
Later, Japanese pressing

Nick Drake, Five
Leaves Left, Japanese pressing

Many
other LPs, too numerous to mention…that's what
happens when you get a great 'table, and you start
to listen to music instead of making notes….

No single component
stands or falls on its own, of course; as I said
before, the Lamm LP2 on the Critical Mass Systems
racks showed itself to be a worthy match for the
Criterion… though obviously better later on in the
review when it was transferred to the PXK rack than
it had been on the Grandmaster Black. The mbl 6010 D
was clearly one of the very finest preamps I've ever
had in my listening room, while the pair of mbl
9008A amps in monoblock mode were impervious to the
most demanding passages that I could throw at them,
never breaking a sweat. And the mbl 101
Radialstrahlers' omni-directional presentation
turned our room into a near holodeck-from-stereo,
zapping my room's space into something that felt an
awful lot like a floor without walls or ceiling.
Synergy students, Iisten up: the Criterion system
hooked up to the Lamm/mbl chain is a terrific
combination.

The Air Tight PC-1
was certainly a natural candidate for this review.
It was Chris Sommovigo's personal MC, with enough
mileage on it to be reasonably broken in. Air
Tight's PC-1 has garnered some good ink over the
past several years; I was curious to hear it in my
own room, and wanted to know more about its
technical characteristics. Uh, too bad! [Warning: minor editorial vent approaching…] One of the
greatest mysteries in fine audiodom is getting a
complete set of given cartridge's
specifications. For some reason,
designers/manufacturers make their MC specs tough to
run down. They're hardly ever included with these
very expensive beasties, and many manufacturers do
not maintain web sites at all. If they do, they
often do not give you the information you need to
get the best out of cartridge, so you end up Googling, emailing, and even calling the distributor
to find out what you want to know. Fact is,
sometimes the distributor knows, and sometimes he or
she has to call the manufacturer. Silly stuff.

The good news
is that there are now some very good online database
resources and tools for the suffering turntable
lover. These will make your life easier… I recommend
them highly.

For cartridge
specifications of all kinds, go to The Cartridge
Database at
http://www.cartridgedb.com.
This truly helpful site allows users to do lookups
of make and model of cartridge and pull up key
specifications for that entry. While there are
disclaimers as to the authoritativeness of the
data…not every field is complete, much is
contributed by users with all the caveats
thereof, and specifications do change… it does
represent a very helpful tool for tracking down
hard-to-find information.

Just for the record,
the same site's home page has links to a really
useful set of cartridge tools, allowing you
to calculate a number of helpful parameters. It also
features a turntable and tonearm database,
though this has some holes in it… like, for example,
Continuum and its Copperhead tonearm. Ah, well…

Anyway, the
specification list that I compiled for the PC-1
included a tolerably beefy 0.6mV output…always a
good thing, that…an effective mass of a middling 12
grams, a recommended tracking force range of 2.0 –
2.2 grams (Rich O'Neill dropped our PC-1 in at 2.0
grams), loading of 30-100 Ohms (remarkably low for
the output voltage, a real design coup of the PC-1),
and an excellent frequency response of 10 – 50,000kHz. On paper, the PC-1 ought to be a fine performer
with the Criterion/Copperhead/Lamm LP2; as it turned
out, it was.

I shouldn't go on
without commenting on the unique and unusual
Copperhead tonearm. The first time I saw its bigger
brother, the Cobra, it brought back memories of the
'50s, of all things. It looked like some of the
futuristic console tonearms we saw back in the
earlier days of the LP. "Could anything that looked
like this sound good?" was my first reaction when I
saw the Cobra at its debut at CES. As it turns out:
oh yeah!

The Copperhead may
look bulky, but in the hand it's surprisingly light.
It's no plastic tonearm-manikin out of the '50s,
either: this is more deep technology, throw-back in
appearance, perhaps, but state-of-the-art in design
and execution. The Copperhead's walls are extremely
thin, composed of "woven fiber," and fabricated
according to supercomputer calculation to shape
resonance in a way that optimizes the listening
experience. The claimed resonance point range for
the Copperhead is 8-10 Hz, a good range to be in. (I
couldn't tell what the actual resonance point was
for the PC-1 on the Copperhead, since I don't have
the effective mass of the Copperhead to complete
that calculation.) The Copperhead's uni-pivot design
has a Sapphire-based bearing with a stainless pivot
point, with on-the-fly adjustable VTA…though I
should note that the VTA adjustment is in a bit of
an awkward place for those who are real VTA fiends.
(For more on the Copperhead, see
http://www.continuumaudiolabs.com/copperhead.html.)

In operation, apart
from VTA adjustments, the Copperhead/PC-1
combination was easy on the hand, and its
non-dampened function was simple to cue up. No muss,
no fuss.

Onwards to the
impressions…

From the beginning,
the Criterion system was a real pleasure to use and
to hear.

Given the
extraordinary lengths that Continuum went to assure
linearity and mass in its platter subsystem, it was
no shocking thing to find that the Criterion was
solid as a rock when it came to maintaining the
flow of the music. Of course there was no sense
of cogging… no perceptible wow/flutter…but more than
that, the Criterion breathed a sense of the life and
blood of the recordings themselves. The noise floor
was imperceptible, the way that all first-rank
designs are; the music was emerging from silence in
a very engaging way.

The frequency
handling of the Criterion/Copperhead with the Air
Tight PC-1 and the Lamm LP2 was very fine, leaving
little to fault (with one small exception). The bass
foundation was deep and round, providing a rich and
reliable bedrock for the overlying sonic rocks. The
midrange was clear and clean, easily avoiding any
sense of euphonic limitations, or nasality, or
overemphasis… very important when one is looking for
the mic feed or the master tape in the grooves, as I
do.

The higher end was a
somewhat different story, however. The only minor
sticking point that I noted in the orchestra of the
frequencies was in the upper range. It was minor,
but seemed to persist over time, and with a variety
of sources. It was tough to characterize; there was
a slight touch of "whiteness," a sense of lightly
tilted higher frequencies that added a kiss of zip
or zing to the playback of the Criterion system.
This puzzled me, since the Lamm family sound is, if
anything, just a touch on the side of warmish, while
the mbl system was an audio feast, being open,
clean, and musically rich with SACD recordings on
the Playback Designs MPS-5. I know that the
cartridge setup was done correctly, since I
witnessed all the steps that Rich O'Neill had done,
and saw that all parameters he used.

My best guess is that
the Finite Elemente Pagode rack may…and I say
"may"… have been the culprit here. Maple is a very
live wood, providing a great deal of life and energy
to components, in my experience. Walker Audio's
Prologue racks are maple and brass, very carefully
constructed to provide quickness and clarity without
losing control of the effect. If you lose control of
the maple, the result is a quite noticeable ringing,
with zingy, zippy sound and higher frequencies that
run away on you. The Pagoda Master Reference rack's
combination of maple shelves and aluminum side
struts may have imparted excess energy to the
higher frequencies of the Criterion, tilting up the
presentation of the turntable by a small notch. This
is speculation on my part, however; without the sort
of careful testing that I didn't have the time to do
during this review, it remains only a guess.

Otherwise, the
frequency palette was excellent on the Criterion,
and on all recordings. Despite being a uni-pivot
design, the inner-groove problem was minimized
nicely. Is it a linear-tracking tonearm, with its
obvious superiority in that regard? No, but then
again, only a linear-tracker is a linear-tracker,
and whatever Continuum is doing with the geometry of
its tonearms and their mounts has narrowed the
performance gap.

Dynamics (both micro-
and macro-, for those who favor the distinction) via
the Criterion/Copperhead/PC-1 and on to the Lamm LP2
and mbl chain were simply breathtaking and truly
top-notch. There was an excellence of slam-wham on
albums like the Classic Records' re-issue of
Scheherazade, with the potent crescendos that
Reiner and company fire like nukes from the
Criterion launching out of the mbl 101's like the
hammer of Thor! Ditto with the dynamic range of
Gibson's New Symphony Orchestra going at it hammer
and tongs with Witches' Brew in its Classic
Records re-issue, or Bizet's Carmen, likewise
on Classic Records… from the quiet and seductive
passages to the pounding climaxes, the
Criterion/Copperhead/PC-1 didn't disappoint. Of
course the tracking was flawless…but never did
the combination sound as though it was ever being
overworked, or even too seriously tested. Credit
must be given as well to mbl's exemplary
electronics… extremely fast, and truly
authoritative… and the ability of the mbl 101's to
fling micro-detail and high-energy crescendos with
equal aplomb. I was captivated; so was everyone who
came to my room.

This was a highly
commendable performance, showing how far we've come
in fine audio over the past 25-30 years in this
regard.

Tonality and musical
richness were inherent when I listened to recordings
like The Weavers "Guantanamera" from The
Weavers: Live at Carnegie Hall on Analogue
Productions 45 RPM. (One of my treasures, amigos!)
Whether or not you think that this is
over-played at shows, I think that Pete Seeger's
voice, and the tonal rightness of the recording, is
a real wonder on a first-rank turntable like the
Criterion. The detail that the PC-1 delivers doesn't
kill the music by inflicting the "death of a
thousand cuts" that some overly detailed
turntable/tonearm/cartridge combinations do. Otis
Redding's The Dock of the Bay LP reissued on
Sundazed gives you a real sense of Redding…not just
sound, but music. In another musical
direction, Led Zeppelin on Classic Records really
rocked, without ever congesting or overloading the
Criterion/Lamm/mbl system. I'm a real fan of the
guitar work of Jimmy Page… the man's got some
wondrous riffs up his sleeves!...and Led Zeppelin
II reissued on Japanese vinyl clearly bettered
the Classic Records iteration in the 33.3 RPM
contest.

Imaging was
exceptional with all of my favorite LPs, as was
soundstaging. Here we clearly have a synergy going,
with all parts of the playback system cooperating to
take a source signal of remarkable quality and
project it in an enveloping way. Here is where the
mbl 101's omni-directional presentation was the
big-boy-in-the-room, and went hand-in-glove with the
Criterion's mastery of the grooves.

Transparency, that
linchpin of audio virtues in my book, was very well
served by the Criterion/Copperhead/PC-1. I liked the
clarity that the Criterion delivers. Listening to
LPs like the reissue of Glory was like the
audio equivalent of fine crystal: clear, clean, and
haunting. The master tape for this album was a 15
ips half-track quarter inch, as I recall; hearing
that recording on the Criterion system made it easy
to just lean back, relax, and close my eyes. By
comparison, some other turntables that I've heard
sound cloudy and a bit hung-over…though in all
fairness to that lesser performance, those turntable
systems cost only a fraction of what I was listening
to with the Criterion/Copperhead/PC-1. Looking past
the slight high-end tilt I've mentioned, the sense
of atmosphere that I heard over four months was
definitely top notch.

I should add one
other comment here. Believe it or not, all of the
above virtues were improved noticeably when we made
one change to the system: we added a JENA Labs
Model ONE as the power cable for the Criterion Power
Unit. The difference was immediately apparent to me,
as well as to Rich O'Neill. I wasn't able to keep
that power cable in the system, unfortunately, but
if you are giving thought to purchasing the
Criterion/Copperhead system, do yourself a favor.
Look at upgrading the power cable…and the JENA Labs
Model ONE will make a big difference.

You've been advised.

Conclusion

So, where does this all
pencil out? What would I say about the Continuum
Criterion and Copperhead with the PC-1?

Well, if I learned
anything during my four months with the Criterion
system, it was that it's definitely moved into the
entry level of the top tier of turntables I've
heard. On the plus side, it has incredible
linearity, stability, dynamics, and musical verve.
It didn't dissect the music… didn't analyze it to
death and drive me out of the room…it just lit it up
and made it happen. I didn't find an album it
wouldn't track, and didn't have a listening session
in which my foot wasn't tapping and my eyes weren't
closing. These are really good signs! In
fact, the all too common audiophile reviewer
analysis and comparisons to the contrary, I spent
most of my time with the Criterion/Lamm/mbl system
just listening to music.

"Like, hallelujah
man!" said Maynard G. Krebs.

Once set up properly,
the operation of the turntable was simplicity
itself, and the Criterion/Copperhead ran, and ran,
and ran without any problems whatsoever. The music
had a fine sense of ease, and reference-grade LPs
definitely gave me a sense of the master tape, which
is what my audio journey is about.

What was particularly
amazing about this result was that the pump for the
vacuum hold down was in the room the entire time.
Not only did it never detract from the transparency
of the playback… heck, I never even remember noticing
it. And it was only a few feet from me. Now
that's quiet.

The minor minuses
I've already mentioned. The slight up-tilt at the
higher end that I noticed over time is still
something that I wonder about. One experienced
friend suggested that it might be the PC-1, a
cartridge that he's heard elsewhere. He thinks it
has a bit of a lean in that direction. Maybe… I don't
have enough experience with the PC-1 with other tonearms and turntables to say for sure. But having
rapped the Finite Elemente Pagode and listened to
the result, I do suspect that a change in
stand/isolation system might eliminate the mild
anomaly that I was hearing. We'll see (see below).

The other minor
nit…and it is minor…was the fact that the VTA
adjustment on the Copperhead is somewhat hard to get
at, down and back on the mounting post. On the other
hand, the VTA scale is clearly marked on the
Copperhead mount, and it is very precise. It's just
a bit awkward to access, particularly if you have
larger fingers. Remember that proper VTA adjustment
is crucial for excellence in vinyl playback.
(Do you know where the VTA for 140, 160, 180, and
200 grams are on your turntable? If not, why not?
And when you know where they are, do you use
them?) If the VTA adjustment is a bit hard to get
to, you shouldn't give up: you just do your VTA
tweaking for each LP weight, note the setting, and
adjust only when you change LP weights.

On balance, then, the
Continuum Criterion turntable and Copperhead tonearm
are definitely a world-class combination in my book.
It's extremely impressive to me that Continuum was
able to get so much of the big brother Caliburn/Cobra design, which I heard for an
afternoon at CES, into the kid brother. Continuum
says that this was their design goal; frankly, I
think that there's no question that they've done it.
If the Caliburn/Cobra tandem is inarguably in the
very top tier of ultimate reference turntables, the
Criterion/Copperhead as I heard them are definitely
knocking at the door of the entry level of that
august group, and they do it at only about half the
USD $150,000 price of the no-holds-barred
Caliburn/Cobra/Castellon system. Very few of us can
afford the Caliburn, but I suspect that the group of
audiophiles/music lovers who could come up with the
scratch for the Criterion is quite a bit larger.

What's not to like?
This is a truly exceptional turntable system.

My Brutus Award at
the end of last year for the Criterion/Copperhead
was based upon my favorable conclusions about this
very fine audio design… I hereby confirm it
enthusiastically.

Post scriptum

As a post script to
the above, there's really good news from Continuum
USA. After some extended discussions between Chris Sommovigo and myself, as well as some communications
between him and Continuum HQ in OZ land, he has
indicated that he's willing to return the Criterion
and Copperhead to me for a second look. In fact, the
Criterion and Copperhead arrived just a few days
ago. Many thanks to Chris and company; a true second
chance to dig deeper into a turntable is a pretty
rare opportunity. This time around, we'll address
the minor points that I've mentioned above by
changing some of the variables. The biggest change
will be the rack system: Continuum has released a
new rack system, the Castelli, designed to
optimize the performance of the
Criterion/Copperhead...though it's available for
other turntable systems, as well. Chris will be
shipping the Castelli any day now; that will address
the rack question.

We also will be using
a different MC. Which one(s)? You'll see…

Finally, we've also
made arrangements with the good folks at Boulder
Amplifiers to have their Model 2008 reference phono
amp in place for at least a portion of this review;
if possible, we'll get that in at the same time that
the Boulder Model 2010 reference preamp is here.
Logistics are tough, and I can't absolutely
guarantee that I'll be able to get everything into
the same place at the same time between Continuum
and Boulder, but we'll try. The other phono amp that
we'll use will be the exceptional darTZeel NHB-18 NS
preamp with internal MC section, which is already in
place. This will give us a great opportunity to hear
the Criterion/Copperhead with different phono
sections.

All of this should
allow us to take the Criterion and Copperhead to the
peak of their performance, and give us what we need
to sort out more variables. We'll find out what the
Continuum gear can do with a different set of
possibilities.

[Long-time readers of
Positive Feedback back in its paper and ink days
(1990-2001) may remember Chris Sommovigo as an
occasional contributor to the magazine. Recordist, a
cable designer of note, entrepreneur, and deeply
devoted lover of things musical and audio, Chris is
a good man with superior ears, many years of fine
audio experience, and excellent sensibilities. I've
asked him to provide some additional insights about
the Continuum Criterion, to help our readers flesh
out their understanding of its qualities. In
accordance with our longstanding principle of "full
disclosure equals no conflict of interest," I am
reminding our readers that he is the USA distributor
for this product. You may therefore read what Chris
has to say for what it's worth, as he tells you what
it was about Continuum that caused him to pick up
the line. — Ye Olde Editor]

So, how did Continuum and I
get here from there…?

Some many moons ago I received a
call from a friend in Australia who asked if, at CES,
we would mind having a new turntable manufacturer
along with us in our demonstration room. My ears
pricked up for a moment…

Now, you must first know that
this friend would not ordinarily make suggestions of
this nature unless there was something very
interesting going on. Neither is it in his character
to reveal too much before "certain things" (as he
likes to put it) are in place. Such was his answer
to me when I inquired into detail, as his habit is
to either be obtuse or understated, or both, only to
reveal things when the time is right.

Thus, he shared only that some
friends of his had managed to create a very
high-functioning record player and they'd like to
get some real-world reaction to it at CES. "I'd love
to have them along," I said, wondering which of the
details he understated, and what information he
didn't mention at all.

Early the following year, in the
brisk Las Vegas winter, a phalanx of Aussies
descended on the Alexis Park room and went to work
assembling, from six or eight separate cases, the
original Caliburn turntable. Working through the
night and into the first morning of the show, I
feared we wouldn't be making music in time, until I
heard Mark Doehmann, Continuum's Chief Designer, ask
if I'd like to hear some vinyl. I did. It was a
miraculous moment of sound. I was hooked.

My friend? He couldn't make it
from Australia to Las Vegas that show. As it turns
out, he was an advisor to the company. That was one
of the details he neglected to mention, along with
the fact that the machine in question was making
music with unexpectedly beautiful veracity. Later on
it would turn out that he would become an investor,
and also CEO of the company.

He asked me by telephone if I
might consider representing the company in the USA,
once they had production sorted out. Yes. Yes, I
think I would.

I shared the news with a couple
of colleagues and friends at CES, who promptly
berated me for such a foolish idea. Hell, the thing
barely worked (which was true—they had a couple of
issues at the show that had us down for awhile), and
who the heck is going to spend that kind of money on
a record player? Basically, my friends thought I was
completely nuts for taking on this line. I think
this was the telltale contrarian sign that I was on
to something very special.

The thing that struck me deeply
about the Caliburn was the engineering involved—I
was desperately curious to know how this team of
Aussie engineers managed to elevate the state of the
art so far, given that turntables were generally
accepted to have been a completely mature delivery
format—all "advances" were just gilding for the
lily. On several occasions throughout that first CES,
Mark Doehmann explained the processes by which they
evolved the Caliburn. These involved a team of
highly accomplished scientists and technicians from
various fields contributing to the knowledge base
from which the approach would be made, and then
plugging that vast array of knowledge into
supercomputers running Finite Element Analysis and
AI-like reshaping programs to discover every
resonant system in a record player… and to design
it to properly sink the resonances out of the
system.

Their team was illustrious, such
that I thought to sloganize the advertising: "It may
not take a team of rocket scientists to design a
record player … but it sure couldn't hurt!" Of
course, I never did run that ad—but it does
capture the essential advantage that Continuum had
and still has over its competition, and it also
explains why they were able to elevate the State of
the Art when we all thought it had peaked years ago.
If you're interested, you can read about the entire
team on their website at: http://www.continuumaudiolabs.com/aboutus.html (click
the "Meet The Team" tab).

Caliburn went on to become the
only other table to achieve Stereophile's
Class A+ status, winning the throne from the already
highly-accomplished Rockport Sirius III—a stunning
performer in its own right. Being
favorably-mentioned in the same sentence as the
Rockport was an extreme honor to begin with; being
awarded "Analog Component of the Year" and overall
"Component of the Year" was a shocking surprise. In
just two short years since we introduced the Caliburn to the world at CES, it rocketed to the top
of the heap—a supreme proof-of-concept if there
ever was one.

The CRITERION

The Criterion is the true
beneficiary of the technical advances and
discoveries about intra-system resonance effects
derived from Continuum's research. In every way,
shape, and form it is a "Caliburn Jr."—seeking to
distill Caliburn's solutions into a less expensive
package without having to compromise too much in the
way of performance. Given that the Caliburn was used—side by side with the Criterion—to vet the
younger sibling throughout its development, you can
be assured that the standard against which Criterion
was compared was as high as it gets.

So where were the compromises?

The platter and chassis complex,
to begin with. The chassis remains cast from the
same very special Magnesium "recipe" developed for
Continuum by their expert metallurgy engineer, John Veitz. The chassis shape itself was derived from
Caliburn's, which itself had been designed with
effort from team-member Dr. Neil McLachlan (inventor
of the Australia Bell) and Dr. Nigel Ricketts
(metallurgy consultant), and some supercomputers
running Finite Element Analysis and Shape
Optimization programs. The difference being that it
requires significantly less of the custom Mg alloy
to make the Criterion Chassis—thus savings were
enjoyed without significant compromise.

As well, the Criterion platter is
derived from Caliburn's platter (similarly cast and
damped), but overall uses about 25% less material
(by weight), and is not magnetically-relieved like
the Caliburn platter:bearing interface. This
permitted Continuum to create a less costly
derivative of the Caliburn platter without
significant compromise.

The bearing itself is entirely
different. Whereas in the Caliburn the bearing is a
hydrostatic bearing that circulates oil throughout
an active hydraulic system, the Criterion's bearing
is a fully-sealed, self-lubricated inverted bearing
(30mm shaft). This departure from the hydrostatic
principle permitted them significant savings with
minimal compromise in performance.

Part of the platter's performance
requires that the record be held down by vacuum,
ensuring that the technology that went in to
developing the vibration damping and sinking
properties of the system was working 100% over the
surface of the record. A new vacuum pump was
developed with the help of team-member Joe Persico,
whose specialty in vacuum and logic control had
already lent itself to Caliburn's system.
Criterion's pump would operate actively 100% of the
time, albeit silently (Stealth Mode, so that the
pump can remain in the room with the listener). In
concert with the PREFS (Pulse Removal and Echo
Filter System), the pump operates without
transmitting effect to the platter.

This is in contrast to the
Caliburn's vacuum hold-down system, which initiates
vacuum and then holds it passively under pressure
until the user releases it via the controller.
Criterion offers a compromise, but not in actual
effect, as Criterion's pump remains silent during
operation. The savings in the Criterion pump were
rather large, actually, because the Criterion's pump
was also not required to be circulating and
recovering the oil from the hydrostatic bearing
system, which is part of the Caliburn pump-unit's
job.

The motor is the next area where
creative compromise was required, as it represents
one of the most expensive parts of the system.
Caliburn's motor is fairly revolutionary, and is
derived from U.S. military technology employed in
advanced motion control applications. The result is
a motor which neither pulses nor cogs, two standard
motor effects which are common to competing
products. Computer controlled to within a gnat's
hair of speed precision, it presents a high-torque,
zero-cogging force to the platter.

Criterion's motor is similar, but
not precisely the same, using the same level of
computer control and DSP horsepower in concert with
the motor's integrated optical encoder to minimize
the effects of cogging on the system, presenting an
ultra-low cogging profile with minimal torque-ripple
to the system, whilst maintaining the ability to
deliver 600oz/inch continuous torque capability. In
other words, it's a delicate as a daisy but could
probably twist your arm off.

One other very interesting area
where Caliburn departed from traditional thinking
was in the armboard technology. Traditional wisdom
tells us that the arm and platter must be on the
same plane, and the same plinth, in order to avoid
the potential for misalignment during play. The
theory being that—if you suspend the arm and give
it freedom from moving out of synch with the platter—it will move out of line with the platter.
Continuum's solution to this was to suspend the
armboard (itself cast from Continuum's special Mg
alloy) from Kevlar strings, holding the armboard
from above. From beneath, the armboard would be
drawn downward with great force as two sets of
attracting magnets—one set on the chassis, one on
the underside of two iron-cast damping pylons under
the armboard—were drawn near to each other. The
effect of this suspension was to isolate the armboard from the vibrations being sunk out of the
platter and dissipated into the chassis, whilst
maintaining a magnetically-stabilizing force so
great that it would be impossible for any natural
force on the arm to shear it from its position.
Vibrations generated from within the arm itself
would ordinarily sink through the bearing and into
the armboard, where they would be dissipated by the
damping action of the Mg armboard material and the "tuning" of the Kevlar strings.

In Criterion, this system was
modified to exclude the iron-cast pylons at either
end of the Caliburn's armboard and, instead, mount
the magnets directly to the armboard's underside
itself. It is a considerably lower-mass system from
the Caliburn's breakthrough system, but similar in
effect and ability (and considerably less costly to
make).

One of the most visible
differences between the Caliburn system and the
Criterion is in the tonearms. The Cobra tonearm from
the Caliburn system is probably the single most
advanced unipivot arm in the world, and it set all
manner of conversation flying throughout the
industry when it was released. Its shape and
material choices, as well as the manufacturing
processes used, were the result of literally tens of
thousands of computer-generated models, a hundred or
so actual prototypes, and endless listening sessions
correlating perceived performance with data
collected (and re-plugging in the perception data to
the FEA and Re-Shape programs in order to make
better sense of ensuing models).

Cobra has been mistakenly called
a "carbon fiber" arm, which it most certainly isn't.
It is made from a weaving process like carbon fiber
arms, but from a combination of organic fibers that
are then fixed in an epoxy-like shell. The shape,
materials, and eggshell-thin profile are the closest
approach to the theoretical ideal of a tonearm that
is infinitely light and yet infinitely rigid.
Monocoque from headshell to counterweight, Continuum
had managed to unlock an old and perplexing problem
and elevate performance to new levels.

Criterion's Copperhead arm
derives all of its technology from Cobra, only in "lite" form, being given a smaller profile (which is
easier to manufacture), and a less complicated
bearing tower from which to pivot. Simplifying the
mechanism and using less material (and machine time)
to make the arm resulted in a significantly
less-expensive product that gave up very little when
compared to its big brother. In addition, Copperhead
is available on its own for those who would like to
benefit from Continuum's engineering but aren't
ready to commit to a full Criterion system yet.

Easily the most visible
difference between the Caliburn system and Criterion
is Caliburn's isolation rack: the Castellon. This
was developed to ensure that the Caliburn was
properly isolated from floor-borne vibrations from
the single-digit Hz range on up. The Caliburn
turntable system itself is suspended on a shelf that
is magnetically levitated off the body of the
Castellon stand. Building in enough magnetic force
to levitate a couple of hundred pounds of turntable
required a couple of hundred pounds of ceramic
magnets! This is a very costly, very heavy solution
that works extremely well—but that wouldn't
translate to a less expensive system such as the
Criterion's.

This past CES Continuum
introduced their solution to the Criterion's lack of
a dedicated isolation stand: the Castelli. This uses
a tuned elastomeric suspension system instead of the
magnetic levitation system, offering a goodly slice
of the isolation effect of the Castellon. Shorter in
height, and made with tubular legs (vs. Castellon's
solid billet legs), Castelli delivers its
performance for a fraction of Castellon's
manufacturing cost.

Unlike Castellon, which is only
sold as part of the overall Caliburn system, the
Castelli can be purchased separately for those who
wish to use it with other components.

This is how the Criterion system
was derived from Caliburn's technological
breakthroughs. And while Criterion's system is far
from inexpensive, it really does give you more than
just a taste of Caliburn for about half of
Caliburn's price. For a company like Continuum, who
operate at the very bleeding edge of performance,
this was quite a coup in terms of design,
performance, and price.

My Audio Journey to Continuum - Mark Doehmann

[Mark Doehmann is a partner
in, and Director of Engineering Research and
Development, at Continuum Audio Labs Pty Ltd.]

My entry into the high end audio
space has certainly been interesting and rewarding.
As anyone who has met me can attest, my love of
music is very strong. I have been tinkering with
analog sound since the age of nine when I was given
a broken old wind up 78 player from the 1930s and
tasked with repairing it by my Dad.

Over the years I have built up a fair appreciation
of how turntable mechanisms work. I have maintained
that original "hobby" in one way or another since I
was young by repairing, modifying and servicing all
manner of turntables including wonderful products
like the Rockport and designing and manufacturing
the original "original" Continuum turntables back in
1982-1989 with a small company I created called
Audio Synectics.

These turntables were created to deliver the best
possible performance from common components and
whilst they didn't have the super budget that the
later post 2000 Continuum Audio Labs products
enjoyed they nonetheless performed way above their
pay scale.

I pursued other more mundane pursuits as an engineer
with a well-known Australian airline which comprised
a diverse fleet of Boeing, Airbus, BAe and Fokker
aircraft. The airline's geographical location in
southern Australia meant that it had to be fairly
self sufficient in its engineering capability as it
was so far away from the major OEM's. This
engineering training and access to resources meant I
was privileged to work alongside a number of first
class aeronautical engineers some of whom I would
later call upon to assist me in developing a ne plus
ultra table for David Payes. David, as many know
from meeting him at various Hi End Audio shows, is
Executive Chairman of Continuum Audio Laboratories
and a patron of the arts. David provided the
creative freedom for this "ragtag bunch" to work at
the reborn Continuum without constraint.

At the time in late 1999 I was enjoying regular
social music sessions with David as part of a loose
group of music lovers in Melbourne Australia. David
has a really fine appreciation of live music and
music reproduction and was looking for ways to
extend the performance of his already state of the
art stereo system. I ventured that he needed a
really good analog front end to raise the bar. At
that time Murali Murugasu was heavily involved in a
high end ultra exclusive audio retail business
called Sensus Pty Ltd. David enquired if Murali had
any contacts with leading manufacturers to import a
quality analog rig. Murali being up till then purely
digital in focus went out and formed relationships
with a few manufacturers of turntables and imported
these to address this growing analog opportunity.

Murali needed assistance to technically look after
analog products and he asked me if I could assist
with an installation at David's place. I agreed to
help David and in the ensuing few months fine tuned
the rig Murali had chosen. One night David asked if
there was anything that could be done to improve the
rig. I ventured that several areas were affecting
the sound and could be addressed but that it would
be expensive to do so. David likes to push the
envelope in many things, and after some discussion
suggested we give it a go.

At the time I was heavily involved in the ICT
industry in large scale consulting projects and I
did not foresee that one day in the not too distant
future a reborn Continuum turntable would be taken
to the logical conclusion that arrived at Chris
Sommovigo's room at CES Alexis Park in January 2005.
Chris had kindly allowed us to use a small portion
of his room at CES as a favour to Murali his
importer of Stereovox into Australia.

Having run behind schedule on getting everything
ready for the first CES we had to break down the
several hundred kilo's of Caliburn kit into
suitcases that weighed no more than 28Kg each and
were regulation luggage size in every aspect. This
meant that a whole contingent of Aussies were tasked
with bringing over core portions to Alexis Park as
personal luggage. Customs who see strange things
everyday must have decided these crazy Aussies were
OK as all pieces got through to CES. The problem was
not everyone was on the same flight or schedule and
we ended up having to work through the night to get
it all together. Peter Denisenko was on hand from
Australia to assist me in getting the turntable
together and as it turns out both he and I would end
up foregoing a lot of sleep over the next few days
as we coped with the adrenaline rush of launching a
product such as the Caliburn.

Chris was fantastic to work with and very supportive
of our endeavour, whilst Murali nervously awaited
news back in Australia as to how we were going.
David Payes who was on hand at the first CES knew
what we had in store having run the Caliburn in his
personal system over the entire 4 year development
cycle and having contributed many core ideas to the
project.

As a results-oriented person I understand that at
the end of the day the only thing that matters is
how you go on "race day" and by 0800 on the first
morning of the show we were ready to play. Chris
came in with coffee and asked whether we had tested
the system. We had been playing for a few hours to
iron out the room acoustics and nonchalantly said
yes (knowing what was in store for him).

I can still remember the look on his face as he
heard the needle drop into the first few bars of
Miles Davis Kind of Blue. He was standing over to
the kitchen bench and let fly a few New York
expletives of joy. He said "Now I understand what Murali
has been talking about all these months."

He had plans to spin CD at that show via the
impressive Esoteric DAC Transport combination to
WAVAC 833 and Peak Consult combination. The night
before he said we could play a bit of vinyl in the
afternoon if the day went well. That morning's
needle drop put paid to playing anything but vinyl
for the next 4 days. Our room ended up causing quite
a stir and I really enjoyed the interaction and
feedback from guys like Rick Rosen, Rich O'Neil,
Stan Ricker, Chad Kassem, Michael Fremer, George
Cardas, Frank Schroder and Richard Foster to name a
few who at one stage or another were crowded into
our room. Rich O'Neil would go on to join
Continuum's engineering team and bring an on the
ground presence to support our interaction with the
US suppliers we use for some of our core technology.

As the Continuum Caliburn was a maturing prototype
we had gone to CES to garner feedback on what market
needs were for the product. A number of Chris's
friends such as Eve Anna Manley and Jeff Joseph were
very supportive of us and whilst they could see the
sonic potential of the product still cautioned Chris
on the risk of a new player. They had gone through
similar curves themselves and knew all the potholes
in the road ahead. I would have done the same thing.
Since that first show EveAnna and Jeff have remained
friends with us and are always good fun to hang out
with. Chris had a high level of trust in Murali and
knew from interviewing David, Peter and myself that
the technical capability of our team was strong
enough to sort out production issues.

Our next show was only a few months hence at HE2005
in the Hilton in New York. We launched the Castellon
isolation stand to some acclaim and the rest as they
say is history. Once the company had passed the
launch phase Murali was really excited about the
potential and offered to come on board the business
officially and offer his expertise in sales and
channel management. David and I agreed to his offer
and his input has enabled the business to grow into
new markets. As the famous Remington commercial once
said "he liked it so much he bought the company," or
words to that effect. David is still passionately
involved in the business, along with Murali and
myself, as equal shareholders in a company that came
from nowhere to cause a serious stir in reigniting
the analog space as a viable alternative to the
dominant digital space at the time. It is
interesting how the way we listen to music has
changed so much going almost full circle to the
heyday of the '50s and '60s where we all put a
little of ourselves into the music system we use at
home. Vinyl allows a personal interaction with the
gear that is not to be underestimated in its appeal.

Continuum's design philosophy is to strive for
ultimate performance. Our pioneering use of exotic
custom-made magnesium alloys was based purely on
sonic performance. If we had chosen to focus purely
on cosmetics then ordinary production materials
would be better suited. The material is exceedingly
difficult to cast and machine but every time you
hear it working you realize the effort is
worthwhile.

With each product we release you can be guaranteed
that the performance is astonishing. We drag the
same bit of rock through the same plastic valley as
everyone else and yet our turntables create a sonic
hologram like no other. The reason is backed by some
really exciting technology that is finally becoming
more accepted outside of the aeronautical
engineering field. Finite Element Modeling and
Gradient Shape Optimization are a few steps beyond
"divining with pendulums" and, once mastered, open
up an information stream an engineer can harness to
develop product performance improvements.

I find the design of Criterion is very appealing to
the eye as well as the ear as it is less daunting in
its physical presence than the super rig Caliburn.
The Castelli stand was designed to harmonize with
the Criterion and increase its performance over
other stands and yet retain the modern sense of
style.

Placed in a suitable system the Criterion will let
the music contained in LP's shine through. One of
the most regarded rooms at the 2009 CES was the
Hansen Tenor room, which showcased the Criterion on
Castelli. With the addition of an Airtight PC-1
cartridge, the room was favorably reviewed by a
tough audience who know what they are on about. This
real life appreciation of our products is rewarding
as it helps validate the many late nights and lost
weekends pursuing performance improvements.

Whilst our products are not cheap I believe they
offer a reward beyond compare. Late at night, when
the lights are off, the power is "clean", the Lagavulin is gently working its magic, and a bunch
of mates are with you listening to new found gems on
vinyl, the music just seems to flow effortlessly as
you stare into the soundstage to see the performers
alive in front of you. You forget the gear, the
niggles of a few pops and crackles, the kidney you
told everyone you had to sell to pay for it all, and
realize that life don't get much better than this
brief moment of escape.

Long live the LP I say and welcome to any kindred
spirits who share your passion for music. Life's too
short to miss out on enjoying a slice of "black
pizza" every now and then!